Gamification can work for wellbeing, but are most doing it the wrong way?
A recent study by Anto A and colleagues (Open-World Games’ Affordance of Cognitive Escapism, Relaxation, and Mental Well-Being Among Postgraduate Students 2024) says that games improve mental relaxation and wellbeing.
I have also seen this in the work from Deci and Ryan on Self Determination Theory and Games.
However, you need to remember that techniques used in gamification should be used in a thoughtful and evidence-based way to promote positive health behavior change and not as a black box or as a copy paste from something you saw in another app.
While working on a project for a client Aim For Behavior that included gamification we made sure to look at papers and evidence and really understand the behaviours and outcomes of the customers and the org.
One of the papers we looked at was by Cheng VWS, et al 2019 which showed that the most commonly observed gamification elements were:
-Levels or progress feedback -Points or scoring -Rewards or prizes -Narrative or theme -Personalization -Customization
The least commonly observed gamification elements were:
-Artificial assistance -Unlockable content -Social cooperation -Exploratory or open-world approach (what the study said helped mental wellbeing) -Artificial challenge -Randomness
The study highlighted some concerning findings.
It found that the current application of gamification to health and well-being apps and technologies does not align with the trend of positive reinforcement that is recommended in the greater health and well-being literature - (this may be driven by the copy mechanics and design elements without understanding)
The study also found that the application of gamification is not driven by health behavior change theory.
This is why it is important to understand the context and the behaviors of what you want to enable before you go and copy elements of gamification, behavior change techniques, and design.
Designers can create many mechanics these days, they are easy to see, however most may be doing so without understanding what these mechanics will create in terms of unintended consequences for the people they are trying to help.
You need to remember to balance customer outcomes and company outcomes, you cannot just gamify for addiction, and not remember that people are using your products to make progress in their lives.
So please, don't just copy designs blindly, do the work of undertanding behavior, of bringing in evidence and of making sure you account for unintended consequences.